19hLike its previous iteration Longzhou Gaming, Kingzone DragonX was easily the favorite at another international League of Legends tournament, the Mid-Season Invitational. Once again it could not take a title, and fans were left wondering why.

At first, Indy "SPACE" Halpern's mom was more likely to hide his gaming equipment from him than support his growing habit. Now, she's come around.

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In the first game of Day 3 the winless Team Liquid managed to pick up its first win of the tournament, against Royal Never Give Up no less, thanks to its bottom laners AD carry Peter "Doublelift" Peng's Caitlyn and support Kim "Olleh" Joo-sung's Morgana handily winning lane. It wasn't all the bottom lane, however, as jungler Jake "Xmithie" Puchero's Skarner successfully stole a Baron from Royal Never Give Up, further cementing Liquid's gold lead. Royal Never Give Up kept fighting back but couldn't overcome its gold deficit, eventually succumbing to Team Liquid's splitpushing pressure.

Fnatic earned a hard-fought victory against EVOS Esports in the second game of the day. It was 41 minutes of back-and-forth action that came down to Fnatic finally putting a stop EVOS top laner Phan "Stark" Cong Minh's Camille splitpushing antics. Fnatic mid laner Rasmus "Caps" Winther was the hero of the game as his Vladimir took down Stark in a 1-vs-1 to give Fnatic control of the Rift. After shutting down the splitpush, Fnatic secured an ace on the back of a Caps quadrakill before taking down the Nexus and moving into third place in the standings.

The much-anticipated match of Kingzone DragonX against the undefeated Flash Wolves started off at a slow pace as first blood wasn't drawn until 22 minutes in. Once Flash Wolves drew first blood, however, it picked up the pace, forcing teamfights and quickly building a gold lead after securing objectives with ease. Kingzone DragonX tried to buy time through a desperate Baron attempt, but Flash Wolves quickly aced Kingzone before moving right into the base and downing the Nexus. This win, in conjunction with its 24-minute romp over EVOS Esports later in the day, clinched the LMS representatives a spot in the playoffs with a perfect 6-0 record through three days.

Royal Never Give Up managed to bounce back from its loss earlier in the day with a win against Fnatic. While the first half of the game was controlled by Fnatic, its second half was plagued by a bevy of positioning errors and shoddy decisionmaking when it came to engaging in teamfights. As such, RNG secured neutral objectives without much opposition, growing its lead and relative power advantage over Fnatic. This led to RNG completely running through Fnatic in the late teamfights, racking up an 11-to-1 kill differential in the final 20 minutes of play to end the game and the day with a 3-3 record.

Despite its win over RNG to open the day, Team Liquid's woes came back for the final game of the day as it again struggled its way through the early game, sinking into a deep gold deficit almost immediately. Kingzone DragonX methodically rotated around the Rift, building on its lead with a splitpushing prowess that left Liquid scrambling. It wasn't long before Kingzone pushed its advantage to the max and picked up the win in 35 minutes to close the day with a 4-2 record, putting itself in pole position for a playoff spot. The same can't be said for Liquid, however, whose playoff hopes are now on life support.